76 Mr. A. Anderson on the Nidification 



No. 4. One Koel's and two Crow's eggs, 19th June — all 

 perfectly fresh. 



No. 5. Three Koel's and six Crow's eggs, 19th June. I think 

 two Crows must have laid in this nest ; for three of their eggs 

 were of one type and quite fresh, while the other three were 

 well incubated, and appeared to be the produce of another 

 pair. 



No. 6. One Koel's and three Crow's eggs, 23rd June — the 

 former perfectly fresh, the latter well incubated. 



No. 7. One Koel's and three* Crow's eggs, 23rd June; the 

 Crow's were on the point of hatching, while the intruded one 

 appeared to have just been laid. 



No. 8. One Koel's and three Crow's eggs, 5th July. In 

 this case the Koel's egg was on the point of hatching, while 

 those of the Crow were quite fresh. 



No. 9. One Koel's and one Crow's egg, 9th July — both ap- 

 parently laid that day. 



No. 10. One Koel's and one Crow's egg, 9th July — both 

 apparently laid that day ; but the latter was found broken in 

 the nest. 



No. 11. Two young Koels and three young Crows, 25th 

 August. 



No. 12. Three young Koels and three young Crows, 28th 

 August. 



Before drawing any conclusions from the above data, I 

 would observe with reference to nest No. 1, that the fact of 

 C. culminatus laying in May was as exceptionally late for that 

 bird as it was early for the Koel. I am consequently led to 

 infer that these three Koel's eggs were the produce of one 

 bird. What still further strengthens this supposition is the 

 result of numerous post-mortems made by me ; for I lost no 

 time in examining the ovaries of as many birds as could be 

 procured, with a view of ascertaining whether I was correct in 

 my surmise. 



It is quite clear that C. culminatus is easily imposed upon, 

 and seems to be alike unaware of and indifferent to the decep- 

 tion practised on her ; for I never once observed the above pair 

 attempt to drive away the Koels from the tree on which they 

 had built. C. splendens, on the other hand, is thoroughly 



